Got a Power Mac G4 Cube

Apple specs on the Cube (they look pretty kewl)

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP116

The very best MAC helper site (I used to work for this company)

http://reviews.cnet.com/macfixit/?tag=bc

The 802.11b should (the most dangerous word in IT) be A-OK with any 802.11b WiFi. IIRC, setting that up on the Apple Networking pane is, well, a pain 🙂

So, hope these help

Hi Rev.,

There are USB external audio devices that may (or may not) work. Several years ago I bought an M-Audio FastTrack USB for a little under $100. Mine is for Windows, but you could do some research to see whether there is a Mac version of it or something like it.

Basically mine has an XLR mic input, mic amp, and guitar input. It also has stereo RCA jack outputs. It connects to the PC with a USB connector (Macs have lots of those), but it does use its own proprietary software. (I think it's called Pro Tools).

I originally bought it to be able to use my laptop to record voice with Audacity and a good quality mic. However, I also found that it can replace the cheap on-board sound card of the laptop with a higher quality sound output through its own D/A converter, when using the laptop as the music source for a C Crane FM (P15) transmitter.

I found mine at a Guitar Center (chain store), and I recall that they had a lot of Mac-compatible gear as well.

Good luck and please let us know how you make out.

ProTools is by Digidesign not M-Audio.

A lot of VO pros use Macs with ProTools for their production work. A Mac Book, Mini or even a Cube makes an ideal platform for an M-Box and ProTools. You can easily find an M-Box on eBay for 100.00.

I have also heard of LPFM stations using Mac Minis (the Cube's replacement) and Radiologik software for station automation. A Mac with OS X is very stable and, therefore, suitable for unattended operation.

Here is the link for Radiologik:

http://macinmind.com/?pid=2&progid=5&subpid=1

I get tired of reading how stable Mac's are (with the inference that PC's running Windows aren't stable). Artisan Radio ran at first on Windows 2000 Advanced Server with Media Server (fed by Windows Media Encoder, and driven by ZaraRadio, both on another computer). It was so stable it ran once (unattended) for months on end - I eventually got nervous and rebooted; we decided to reboot every month just to be on the safe side. It was only when we introduced open source software (Icecast 2 and Oddcast, to add an mp3 stream) that things destabilized - we now should reboot every week or we get issues.

might use it strictly for ripping music cd's to wav. apple is suppose to be excellent for multimedia.

-- little late on this --

The important thing to remember is that the inside of a computer is RF hell, so you should retain the signal in digital form until you have to change it.

The Cube wasn't Apple's best idea, but I'd max it out with compatible upgrades, as much memory as possible, as large an external drive as it can handle, and set it up as a playlist server.

If you don't need to mix signals, you can just get a Griffin iMic ... about $35. At a picnic outside my studio, I used a small old Radio Shack mixer .. 2 mics, a CD player and a vinyl turntable, the output of that to an iMic and onto internet radio.

In this case, had I been on the air with real radio, I could have fed the signal into Audacity or Garageband with the pass-through monitor on ... then the iMic's output could be fed to the TX.

Note: I have a full recording studio, but I was late with setting up picnic stuff and the iMic/Radio Shack mini mixer was the quickest setup.

HTH,
Ken N.